EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

— The TUC welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Speaker's Conference on the underrepresentation of women, black and disabled people in the House of Commons. As the voice of working people in Britain, the TUC believes that political underrepresentation at the very highest level is linked to economic and social disadvantage and this submission reflects the work of the trade union movement in tackling disadvantage and underrepresentation.

— The TUC regrets the exclusion of LGBT people from consideration within the scope of the Inquiry and believes that the continuing discrimination experienced by LGBT people is compounded by their invisibility. In order to help address the invisibility of lesbian, gay and bisexual citizens, the TUC supported the campaign to include a question on sexual identity in the 2011 census, and is disappointed that the ONS has rejected this opportunity to establish the true size of this community.

— The TUC believes that the lack of political power is both a cause and effect of marginalisation from social and economic power and that the idea of a representative democracy is undermined by the significant imbalances under consideration by this Inquiry. This "democracy deficit" should be a matter of concern to all people.

— The disproportionate likelihood of women, black and disabled people to be poor has a significant effect on their participation in the political process at all levels. Economic independence and high levels of qualifications are characteristics of those who are currently over-represented in the political process. Women's disproportionate responsibility for domestic and caring responsibilities acts as a further depressant on their political activity.

— There is evidence that women's political activity rises when women run for office and that all groups of people are likely to be more motivated to engage in the political process when they feel that they, as people, and their concerns, are reflected in those who represent them.

— Falling levels of turnout at General Elections suggest that tackling the underrepresentation of particular groups might also provide a means to re-engaging with others disaffected by politics.

— The TUC believes that entrenched inequality and barriers to participation are not easily overcome and that working to create real change entails not just a stated commitment, but a proactive approach, involving transparency, accountability and monitoring of both progress made and difficulties encountered.

— The trade union movement has a long standing concern with issues of democracy, political engagement and underrepresentation from disadvantaged groups. Through biennial "Equality Audits", the TUC and its affiliates have engaged in an open, critical and committed approach to raising representation and participation from women, black, disabled and LGBT people.

— The Audit not only tackles the issue of descriptive representation, outlining where disadvantaged groups are located and what progress yet needs to be made, but also attempts to ensure that their agenda is also central to the work of their trade union.

— The TUC shares the knowledge and work of its affiliates within this submission and attaches to this response copies of TUC Equality Audit reports for the consideration of the Speaker's Conference. The long standing work of the trade union movement provides a useful perspective on underrepresentation of women, black and disabled people in the House of Commons, highlighting the need for a proactive approach to raising levels of participation.

— The TUC believes that a more representative body and a more representative agenda are inextricably linked and that democratic engagement will be highest where voters believe that politics matters to the lived reality of their lives.

BACKGROUND

  1.  The TUC is the voice of working people in Britain and has 58 affiliated unions representing nearly seven million working people from all walks of life. The TUC is not affiliated to any political party and welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Inquiry on the underrepresentation of women, black and disabled people in the House of Commons. However, the TUC regrets the exclusion of LGBT people from the considerations of the Speaker's Conference and believes that this perpetuates their underrepresentation in the House of Commons and compounds their invisibility as an underrepresented group in society. In order to help address the invisibility of lesbian, gay and bisexual citizens, the TUC supported the campaign to include a question on sexual identity in the 2011 census, and is disappointed that the ONS has rejected this opportunity to establish the true size of this community.

UNDERREPRESENTATION AND DISADVANTAGE

  2.  The TUC believes that unbalanced representation in the House of Commons is inextricably linked with the entrenched inequalities and disadvantage experienced by underrepresented groups. Women, who constitute half the population only make up 19.7% of MPs. The number of black MPs would have to rise from the current 15 (2.3%) to 51 (7.9%) in order to reflect the BME population of the UK. According to the 2001 Census, disabled people make up 16% of the population. However, it is difficult to estimate the level of underrepresentation of disabled people in the House of Commons, due to lack of available information and the invisible nature of many impairments.

  3.  Democratic processes and formal political structures are not immune from the issues of discrimination and restricted opportunities which are experienced by groups in wider society. However, the low levels of representation within formal political structures and processes are particularly critical because the idea of a representative democracy is undermined by significant disparities and imbalances between particular groups. In the case of women, this affects half the population of the United Kingdom. Democratic engagement is a key measure of the health of public life and the ability of all groups to have a say in the decisions that govern their lives. Therefore an unbalanced representation should signal a "democracy deficit" that must be of significant concern. Investigating and acting to resolve this deficit may have added benefits in engaging with barriers and obstacles restricting participation and representation shaped by other factors not under consideration in this inquiry, such as social class, age and sexual orientation.

  4.  "Nothing about us without us" has been a key watchword for the disability rights movement, highlighting the way that marginalised groups experience restricted access to the processes which govern their lives and life chances. The TUC believes that the lack of political power is both a cause and effect of marginalisation from social and economic power and that the consequences of this are seen in many aspects of civil life.

  5.  The EHRC's Sex and Power Survey for 2008 estimated that at the current rate of progress it would take another 200 years to achieve an equal number of women in Parliament. This would take longer to achieve than equality in the senior levels of the civil service, the numbers of senior women in the judiciary and female directors of FTSE 100 companies which they estimate to take 27, 55 and 73 years respectively. It is not merely a question of a lack of progress towards a more equal representation at the highest levels of civil society—low pay, poverty and job segregation is the reality of working life for too many women in the UK.

  6.  Women and children are significantly more likely to be poor than men. The TUC believes that the poverty of children is inextricably linked to the poverty of their mothers. An IPPR report on Low Pay in 2006 found that 16.1% of men in work were low paid, compared with 29% of women workers. 45.7% of part-time workers, who are disproportionately women, are low paid. There are 1.4 million children in working households living in poverty—half of all poor children.

  7.  Poverty is also a fundamental part of the life experience of black and disabled people too. Leonard Cheshire Disability found that disabled people are twice as likely to live in poverty as non-disabled people, with 30% of disabled people aged between 25 and 65 living below the poverty line.[13] Only half of disabled people are in work, compared with over four fifths of the non disabled population in work[14] and those who are in employment are more likely to work in manual and lower occupations, and less likely to work in managerial, professional and high-skilled occupations.[15] Black people also face a disproportionate risk of poverty: Children from BME families are more likely to be poor than children from white families. 50% of children in Asian families are living in poverty, 51% black British children living poverty, 48% of children in Chinese families compared to 27% of children in white families.[16] Furthermore, the low rate of labour market activity by Pakistani and Bangladeshi women is also reflected here: Child Poverty Action Group's Statistics on Poverty for 2008 found that Pakistani and Bangladeshi children's risk of poverty was 63%.[17]

  8.  The TUC believes that there is an undeniable link between the disadvantage and inequality experienced by particular groups and their underrepresentation in those institutions and processes which have the power to shape people's life chances and opportunities. There is a real danger that an unrepresentative democratic process could result in an increasing sense of disenfranchisement and powerlessness amongst some of the most vulnerable groups in society.

UNDERREPRESENTATION AND VOTER ENGAGEMENT N POLITICS

  9.  There has been a large body of work investigating gendered patterns of political activity and engagement, though such information is scarcer for black and disabled people. The available evidence suggests that the relationship between representation and the value placed on political activity as well as trust in political institutions is complex, and easy generalisations about the political attitudes and behaviour of women, black or disabled people cannot be made. A report by the Electoral Commission on Gender and political participation in 2004 did find some distinctions between men and women. Women's turnout in the 2001 election was higher in seats where a woman was elected to Parliament—4 % higher than men's, and women seemed to be less engaged in the election, including volunteering and campaigning, in seats where a male MP was elected. Women were more likely to agree with the statement that: "Government benefits people like me" in those constituencies where they were represented by a female MP: 49% of women compared to 38% of men. In fact, the number of women agreeing to this statement drops to 38% in those constituencies represented by men. That this link between representativeness and satisfaction with Parliamentary politics may apply to all groups is suggested by the Electoral Commission's Fourth Audit of Political Engagement in 2007. It found that a third of the population believed that: "When people like me get involved in politics, they really can change the way the country is run" while one in four people strongly agree or tend to agree that: "Being active in politics is a waste of time".[18]

  10.  The turn-out rate for the last two General Elections is considerably lower amongst black voters than white voters. According to estimates by the Electoral Commission, white voter turnout was 60% in 2001, rising to 62% in 2005, while black voter turnout remained the same at 47%.[19] The belief that "voting would make no difference" was cited by 34% of black and Asian voters as their reason for not voting, to an ICM/Operation Black Vote poll in 2001.[20] Furthermore, a survey commissioned by the Electoral Commission and Operation Black Vote in 2002 found that 43% of black people living in Greater London and the West Midlands said that a better representation of black people in politics would encourage them to vote. This was followed by the second most important reason, "politicians being in touch with the concerns of black people", which was cited by 37%.[21]

  11.  Leonard Cheshire Disability reported that 68% of polling stations continued to be inaccessible to some disabled people in the 2005 general election[22] and 12 % of respondents to its survey stated that they were prevented from applying for public office by a combination of barriers, of which the most frequently cited were inaccessible premises and inaccessible transport. Despite this, the same survey found a high level of self-reported voter turnout, with 77% of respondents saying that they had voted in the last general election, and 66% in the last local government elections, both above the rate for the general population.

  12.  The ultimate barometer of people's attitudes toward Parliament and representative political structures in the UK could be measured by turn out at General Elections. By this measure, it is therefore of concern that turnout at the 2005 General Election was the third lowest since the turn of the 20th century.[23] The TUC believes that a more representative body and a more representative agenda are inextricably linked and that democratic engagement will be highest where voters believe that politics matters to the lived reality of their lives. A more representative Parliament will only be achieved if this challenge is taken on.

TACKLING UNDERREPRESENTATION AND RAISING PARTICIPATION

  13.  The TUC believes that issues of representation are closely linked to participation. In this submission to the Speaker's Conference, the TUC wishes to expand the definition of political participation beyond formal processes such as voting or activism for political parties, to more informal political activity. The trade union movement is able to offer a unique perspective to this inquiry as it provides many working people the ability to directly influence decisions made about their lives both in the workplace and nationally. Moreover, the trade union movement has long engaged with the issue of representation and participation from underrepresented groups, including women, black, disabled and LGBT people. The TUC believes this work has important parallels to wider political participation and representation and will focus its submission to the Inquiry on the ongoing efforts of the trade union movement to better represent its membership.

  14.  The TUC believes that political underrepresentation is fundamentally linked to the experience of disadvantage in the workplace, from difficulty accessing the labour market, unequal pay and lack of progression to job segregation. The trade union movement as a whole has committed itself to increasing the representation of women, black, disabled and LGBT people, believing that tackling underrepresentation and increasing participation is fundamental in challenging entrenched discrimination within the workplace. As with participation in formal politics, disadvantage compounds and reinforces the barriers that stand in the way of these groups. Women's concentration in low paid work and their shouldering of an unequal share of domestic and caring responsibilities severely restricts their capacity to take on additional political activity outside the home and in the workplace. The difficulty that black and disabled people face in accessing the labour market and their overrepresentation in low paid work means that their underrepresentation within trade union movement is a critical challenge, not just for trade unions but for civil society. Access to good quality employment would enable an increased participation in the wider political process. The BME group which has the highest turnout in General Elections (those of Indian heritage) is also the group with the highest level of employment and income.

TUC EQUALITY AUDIT

  15.  In 2001, the trade union movement affirmed the centrality of equality to the trade union agenda by adopting a rule change to their constitutions, committing both the TUC and unions to promote equality in all aspects of their work. The unions agreed to report back to Congress every two years on the work they were doing to advance to equality. Through the biennial "equality audits" trade unions make publicly available information about their membership, the composition of elected bodies, campaigning priorities, their negotiating and bargaining agenda and the composition of their staff. The TUC believes that entrenched inequality and barriers to participation are not easily overcome and that working to create real change entails not just a stated commitment, but a proactive approach, involving transparency, accountability and monitoring of both progress made and difficulties encountered.

  16.  The submissions made by unions to the TUC Equality Audit in 2003, 2005 and 2007 detail the attempts made by unions to ascertain the concerns and priorities of their underrepresented members and to identify barriers and obstacles to their participation. It also sets out the work conducted by unions in meeting these challenges and any progress made. For many unions the challenge included finding out the real numbers of underrepresented members and where they were located—particularly for black and LGBT members. This work has been vital in changing perceptions of who trade union members actually are and shattering long held stereotypes.

  17.  Unions have conducted questionnaires and surveys as well as adding targeted events for underrepresented members within their constitutional framework. The ability of disadvantaged groups to articulate their own agenda has been identified as crucial in ensuring their voice is heard in a meaningful way.

  18.  Some unions also have "reserved" seats on their committees to ensure that the voice of underrepresented groups is heard on decision making bodies. These reserved seats are most common to ensure better representation for women—16% of unions have reserved seats for women on their executive and 24% have them for delegations to TUC Congress. In their response to the 2007 audit a greater number of unions had introduced reserved seats on their national executive for black members—20%. A small number of unions had introduced them for disabled, LGBT and young members. Many unions reported that minimal proportionality had encouraged greater numbers of women and black members to participate, therefore prompting a wider cultural change within the union beyond just the members elected to reserved seats. Unison reported that: " proportional representation and fair representation have had a huge impact in shaping and driving the union's policies and priorities…..this has changed the agenda, structure, and future of the union in key areas where equality outcomes are having a positive impact in the union's achievement and recruitment." The TGWU said that: "rules on minimum representation have transformed the face of the T&G and it was essential that this became a rulebook requirement. It is also very important that the rules are supported by education—positive action and support for all members on the aims of the rules and why they are necessary. Minimum proportionality has not prevented other women and BAEM members from being elected."[24]

  19.  It is clear from submissions to the Audits that unions view the task of tackling underrepresentation as involving a fundamental change both to the union's bargaining and negotiating agenda and to the way it organises and involves its members. Unions reported on their efforts to increase the numbers of underrepresented groups in their lay structures. Unions had produced targeted training courses for both underrepresented groups and equality training for existing officers. A growing number of unions are running national events for underrepresented groups to enable them to network, hear about specific work being undertaken by the union and to encourage them to become more active. Unions have also carried out specific projects—the NUJ had run an "equality for all" project for training equality officers. The GMB had carried out a major two year "Race and Diversity" project to increase participation from black members and the NASUWT had found that their "Disability Champions" course had encouraged greater activity from disabled members.[25] The trade union movement has also found that new types of union activity such as the Union Learn agenda and the Equality Reps project had greatly increased the numbers of underrepresented groups becoming active within the union.

  20.  There is considerable evidence that women's caring responsibilities and unequal share of domestic work presents a significant obstacle to their participation in traditional political activities. A research report on Gender and Representation for the Electoral Commission published in 2004 found that marital status and the presence of children had a noticeable effect. Married men were significantly more likely to participate than married women—however, the participation gap closes among those without children living at home.[26] This also has an effect on the ability of women to participate in trade union activities. Trade Unions have attempted to tackle this issue within the workplace and in public discourse through campaigns for flexible working and family friendly rights. However, they have also attempted to address these as practical concerns for their women members. Childcare, accessible meeting times and venues have become increasingly important for trade unions. Accessibility is also fundamental to disabled members. Unions reported comprehensive work to ensure accessibility to their campaigns and communications materials to members with visual and hearing impairments.[27] Beyond this, unions are tackling the invisible barriers that confront underrepresented members, particularly unthinking and exclusionary habits that may prevent women, black, disabled and LGBT members from fuller participation.[28]

THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL PARTIES

  21.  The TUC has focused its submission on the unique perspective that the trade union movement can offer on issues such as democratic engagement, economic and political disadvantage and raising participation and representation by underrepresented groups. It believes that any successful attempt to tackle these issues, whether by Government or by political parties, must engage with the wider disadvantage and inequality experienced by women, black, disabled and LGBT people. Any stated commitment to engaging with these groups should involve a proactive approach which is both accountable and makes demonstrable progress in tackling barriers to participation. Attempts to tackle underrepresentation must speak to the aspiration expressed in the statement: "When people like me get involved in politics, they really can change the way the country is run"[29] if they are to be successful.

14   Disability Rights Commission (May 2007) Disability Briefing p5. Back

15   Ibid p6. Back

16   TUC (2008): Ten Years After: Black Workers in Employment 1997-2007 p3. Back

17   Child Poverty Action Group (2008) Statistics on Poverty 2008. Back

18   Electoral Commission (2007) Audit of Political Engagement, p39-40. Back

19   Electoral Commission (2005): Turnout 2005 p18. Back

20   Electoral Commission (2002) Voter Engagement among black and minority ethnic communities p35-36. Back

21   Richards, L. and Marshall, B. (Electoral Commission, 2003) Political Engagement among black and minority ethnic communities: what we know, what we need to know p7. Back

22   Leonard Cheshire Disability (2008) Disability Review 2008 p47-48. Back

23   Electoral Commission (2005) Turnout 2005 p23. Back

24   TUC (2007) TUC Equality Audit 2007 p 24. Back

25   Ibid p18. Back

26   Electoral Commission (2004) Gender and Political participation p8. Back

27   TUC (2007) TUC Equality Audit 2007, p39 Back

28   Ibid p40-41. Back

29   Electoral Commission (2007) Audit of Political Engagement, p39-40. Back